The present invention relates to equipment that is suitable for depositing food product, such as for depositing viscous food products, and methods of depositing such food products. In particular, the present invention is directed to such a depositing apparatus and method of depositing where a viscous food product is portioned, shaped, and dispensed.
Food product manufacturers frequently introduce new food products in order to satisfy consumers and maintain a competitive position in the marketplace. New food products may be old products with a new feature or they may be combinations of old products or they may be entirely new products altogether. In order for manufacturers to remain competitive they should use economical manufacturing techniques and smart processing methods.
Development of food processing equipment often is directed to performing similar tasks that previous equipment performed but at higher production throughput rates and/or with greater efficiency. Generally, manufacturing methods are designed that are smarter, i.e. that sense or monitor the product or the process conducted in order to improve overall quality and consistency of the food product. Further, it is desirable for the corresponding processing equipment to become more economical. As an additional challenge, food product processing equipment may be designed to integrate multiple tasks in place of individual tasks that were performed by existing equipment in combination with one another.
Food product depositors have been developed for intermittently or continuously depositing food product onto a moving surface of either another food product, packaging material, or a conveyor. Also, depositors are known which divide a single stream of flowable food product, such as supplied by a common feed manifold, into multiple streams that are disposed and carried away by a conveyor system. These food product streams may be later cut with a mechanically driven knife or other suitable means so that the combination of the food processing and dispensing machine, the conveyor belt, and the cutting means provides a plurality of substantially equal portions of the food product.
In general, viscous food product processing equipment has become better suited to meet the throughput and cost needs of the food product industry. One such food product depositor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,374 to Vargas et al., which is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention and the disclosure of which is entirely incorporated herein by reference. Disclosed in the Vargas et al. patent is a depositor apparatus for dispensing measured units of material onto a conveyor system. The depositor apparatus includes two dispensing assemblies that are fed from a common feed device through individual feed inlets. The dispensing assemblies have dispensing chambers with spaced apart dispensing outlets. The depositor apparatus also includes a diverting apparatus for opening and closing the feed inlets for the purpose of filling the dispensing chambers in between alternating dispensing cycles. Thus, the intermittent depositing assemblies reciprocally operate to alternately dispense material. As a result the overall efficiency of the depositing operation is increased.
Another food product depositor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,540 to Hannaford. This apparatus provides positive displacement synchronized metering of pressurized food material to a plurality of extrusion dies using several positive displacement metering apparatus. The Hannaford device provides a continuous food extrusion process having an equal flow of material from a number of dies which are fed from the same source. Thus, multi-lane continuous uniform streams of food product can be provided. Further, multiple streams of food product can be provided onto a conveyor system for delivery to a separate cutting system thereby providing fixed portions of a food product at greater throughputs. That is, by using multiple outlets for the continuous streams of food product, throughput is increased.
Yet another multi-lane depositor is disclosed in U.S. Pat No. 5,906,297 to Cole. Disclosed in the Cole patent is a multilane depositor for providing continuous streams of food product. More specifically, this apparatus divides one or more streams of fluid material into a plurality of substantially proportional segments. That is, the invention of Cole uses a multi-outlet depositor to deposit proportional amounts of material.
Yet another example of a depositor is disclosed in U.S. Pat No. 5,445,674 to DeMars, which is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention and the disclosure of which is entirely incorporated herein by reference. Disclosed in the DeMars patent is a fluid dispenser for consistently depositing relatively thick and lumpy materials. The depositor utilizes a supply path to pump/valve combinations and a feedback pressure line to assure an adequate pressure at the point of deposit. There are positive displacement pumps that operate continuously through the valves with an additional feedback path to assure constant flow of the material.
In general, the processing equipment described above is directed to metering and dispensing material, usually onto a conveyor surface. Also, such prior art processing equipment is usable to divide a single stream of food product into multiple streams that are carried away by a conveyor system. These streams of food product are later cut by a suitable means for defining food product portions so that the combination of the food processing machine, a conveyor belt, and a cutting means provides a plurality of substantially equal portions of the food product.
Although the devices and systems of the prior art have provided equipment for improved food product processing, there still remains a need for even faster, and more so, smarter food product processing equipment. As mentioned above, one such way for food product processing equipment to become smarter is for it to become more integrated. Processing equipment is generally more efficient and cost effective when several processing steps can be performed with the same piece of processing equipment.
The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for depositing generally viscous food products. Preferably, a depositor module includes mating features for assembling a plurality of depositor modules in line to form a multi-lane depositor device. A preferred depositor module minimizes changes to the cross-sectional shape of the fluid stream within the depositor body. Such minimized change to the cross-sectional shape of the food product flow stream is advantageous in that it provides for lower rotational power requirements such as for highly viscous materials and especially for materials that are dilatant in their rheological characteristics. As an additional advantage minimized cross-sectional change to the flow stream allows for rapid and highly controlled acceleration and deceleration of the rotor and sliding vanes which provides for greater control over deposited food products. Moreover greater processing speeds may be realized where changes to the cross-sectional shape of the fluid stream are minimized. As a further advantage, damage to food product particulates such as those particulates described below, may be reduced where changes to the cross-sectional shape of the fluid stream are minimized. Also, the food product may be shaped within the depositor body such that no additional shaping of the deposited food product is required.
In an aspect of the present invention a depositor module for depositing viscous food product is provided. Preferably, the depositor module includes a depositor body having an internal chamber which has an inside surface, a rotor rotatably positioned within the chamber of the depositor body and which rotor has an outside surface, and at least one sliding vane passing through the rotor. In accordance with the present invention the rotor preferably has a rotational position wherein a portion of a sliding vane extends past the outside surface of the rotor into the chamber and is at least partially determined by the inside surface of the chamber.
The preferred depositor module also includes a supply port fluidly connected to the chamber, a discharge port fluidly connected to the chamber, and a shaping region positioned between the supply port and the discharge port. Preferably, the shaping region is defined by at least a portion of the outside surface of the rotor and at least a portion of the inside surface of the chamber. More preferably, the cross-sectional shape of the shaping region generally corresponds to the portion of the sliding vane extending past the outside surface of the rotor between a first rotary position of the rotor and vane and a second rotary position of the rotor and vane.
In another aspect of the present invention the food product depositor module may include a cutoff device for certain applications for interrupting the flow of food product being deposited by the food product depositor. In particular the cutoff device is preferably a rotary spool type cutoff device which includes a passage that may be controllably aligned and misaligned with the passage of the depositor module to sever the food product stream.
In yet a further aspect of the present invention a food product depositor module for use in a multi-lane depositor system with another food product depositor module having similar features is provided. Preferably, the food product depositor includes a first depositor body having a first mating feature at a first end of the depositor body and a second mating feature at a second end of the depositor body. The second mating feature is preferably provided for mating with a first mating feature of another depositor module similar to the first depositor module. The depositor module also preferably includes a rotor positioned within a chamber of the depositor body and at least one sliding vane passing through the rotor. The depositor module also preferably includes a supply port fluidly connected to the chamber, a discharge port fluidly connected to the chamber, and a shaping region positioned between the supply port and the discharge port.
A method for depositing a predetermined amount of food product in accordance with the present invention is characterized by including the steps of providing at least one food product depositor module, supplying viscous food product to a supply port of the food product depositor, filling at least a portion of a shaping region with food product from the supply port, transferring food product through the shaping region by rotating a rotor and sliding vane by a rotational amount generally corresponding to the predetermined amount of food product to be deposited while substantially maintaining the cross-sectional shape of the food product, and depositing the predetermined amount of food product through a discharge port.